Australian line-up, fell one run short of recording his first Test Match double century. On 199, the DRS
sorted him out leg before wicket. It didn’t matter that much, he was man of the match, Australia won and he
went on to bank the first of his two doubles four weeks later at Lord’s. But it is only now that he will have a
Twin Tons bat on the wall; just the fifth Australian to complete this particular feat in some 142 years of
Ashes fare.
Before all that, when Smith arrived for the fourth morning the 46 runs that he added before the close the
previous evening meant nothing. His first innings miracle would be irrelevant as well, in terms of the match
position, if he fell straight away. But this was never going to happen, or so it appeared from the earliest
exchanges. The first hour of the day was the most important, 52 calm runs added when building the lead
from 34 overnight. A stand of 100 followed, then Smith’s half-century, then Travis Head’s, then the 100
lead. Backing up the 35 he made in the first innings, the newly-minted vice-captain is very much in this
series.
But when he fell not long before lunch, there was still plenty to do. His dismissal was both unlucky – he
easily could have been reprieved by the third umpire for a back-foot no-ball – and against the flow of play.
Ben Stokes gave it big; the crowd responded accordingly. They had put on 130 but the lead was 115. On
afternoon one, when their union was broken, a collapse of 5/23 followed. Not today, though. It is
conceivable that Matt Wade would have been dropped for Lord’s if he failed a second time. Perhaps, fueled
by that, he played with the aggression that he is defined by. Joe Root made the mistake of keeping Joe Denly
at this point and the Tasmanian took full advantage, racing to 15 from 17 balls at the break.
By this stage, Smith was doing Smith things. Clipping one to midwicket on 93, he flicked his back leg in the
air for reasons best understood to him alone. After lunch, from the first ball he saw from Stuart Broad, he
threaded a packed off-side field with a picture-perfect cover drive – nothing but net; swish. Where dignified
emotion defined his celebration upon reaching three figures on Thursday, this time he smiled and smiled.
There was nothing more to do.
That he has now made 25 Test hundreds in 119 hits is absurd, but for another day. In keeping with the
theme of his first innings, there was work still to do. An eccentric lightsaber leave came from the ball after
the milestone – code from Smith, as he has explained in the past, that he has decided to shift to an even
more intense level of concentration. That he had 12 pairs of gloves on the field all day, rotating between
them in his usual pedantic way, highlighted that had he his way - there would be no giving it up. Despite
how very in the game England could be even now if they removed him, they looked more broken by the
over. Nothing worked.
With Wade beyond 50 with a reverse sweep, their partnership now passed 100. When Smith finally did
make an innings-ending error, edging Chris Woakes’ widest delivery of the match, the lead was 241.
According to the CricViz win predictor, when Smith walked out 24 hours earlier, Australia were at an 11 per
cent chance of victory. One hundred and forty-two runs later, 96 of which were made in 146 deliveries on
Sunday, England had stumped to eight per cent. Even the Hollies Stand hooters – those with any
meaningful appreciation of the game, in any case – applauded.